Leaders need to transform from parents to peers

Isaac Getz, JANUARY 15, 2018

Consider the essence of the dominant organisational model, aka the hierarchical bureaucracy: 1) Higher-ups whose job is to instruct subordinates on how to work and then to control them, hence the hierarchy. 2) Procedures these higher-ups put in place to save time instead of repeating the same instructions over and over, hence the bureaucracy.

The message implicitly broadcasted to employees with these instructions and procedures is simple: ‘You can’t do this thing on your own. Neither can you be trusted to do what you are instructed well without supervision.’

Psychologists know that when facing such ‘parents’ a ‘child’ reverts either to compliance (‘just tell me what I must do and I will do it’) or to rebellion (‘I’ll make you regret your order’).